Keeping Secrets
by Raisonne
Summary: Hyuga has small bit of blackmail material over Tsubasa. But not for long. Tsubasa x Sanae, and heavily-implied!Hyuga x Maki


**Keeping Secrets**

Hyuga has small bit of blackmail material over Tsubasa. But not for long. Tsubasa x Sanae, and heavily-implied!Hyuga x Maki

Captain Tsubasa (c) Takahashi Yoichi

...

Tsubasa stretched his arms over his head and yawned comfortably. The early evening air around him was sweet and cool as he leisurely strolled about the grounds of the training village.

It was, rather unusually, quiet outside, as all the members of the team had retreated indoors for a well-deserved break, and to play a number of games of poker. With the exception of Mikami, who had to stay back to keep an eye on them (and was too nice to stop them when they were having so much fun, and only warned them sternly that they were not, under any circumstances, to gamble with real money) most of their supervisors, coaches, and training staff had gone off to meet some officials, giving the team more or less an evening of free reign and potential chaos. Earlier in the day, during their break in training, Jito had boasted that he was an undefeated poker master, to which all the team mates decided to challenge his claim.

Well, _almost_ all the team mates.

Kojiro Hyuga had managed to escape early for a little bit of extra soccer practice. Not being the type to gamble, he waved off the team's invitations to join them in ganging up on Jito, and quickly left. As he often went off by himself to train, the others didn't give it much thought.

Tsubasa himself also managed to escape the poker madness but only after losing spectacularly to Matsuyama, Jito, and Nitta. He declared himself in need of a stretch of legs, and ducked out of the room, leaving behind a light-hearted verbal war between Ishizaki and Urabe, who were debating about who had the better poker face.

Tsubasa had almost reached one of the training fields, when he heard two people talking from around the corner. He hesitated, not wanting to eavesdrop, and was beginning to plan a different route around them, when the girl, who's voice was unfamiliar to Tsubasa, spoke.

"If you have time, send me an email and let me know how you're doing. I'll watch your games when I can, but it's not the same."

"I will-"

Tsubasa raised his eyebrows and halted his route re-calculation and his resolution to not listen in. Now _there_ was a familiar voice...

"-and you let me know how you're doing, too," replied Kojiro Hyuga.

"Sure." The girl's voice was light-hearted and playful. "Also, you have to send me a postcard when you're abroad. You still haven't gone on a date with me yet, so this will have to do for now."

Hyuga laughed, albeit bashfully, and Tsubasa had to refrain from snickering, pressing his fist against his mouth.

"I'm just joking," said the girl in good-natured exasperation.

"I know," said Hyuga in a would-be casual tone. "But anyway, we'll... have lunch or something if I stop by Okinawa. I mean, if you have time."

"Wh- oh! Y-Yeah, that sounds good. I'll ask my friends if they know of any good places to eat out."

"Sure."

There was a moment of awkward silence. The girl cleared her throat.

"Well, anyway, I'd better be going, now. My coach will bench me if I take too long."

"Eh? Oh, right. Er, do you want me to walk you back?"

"Ah... no, it's okay. You're still practising, and you probably can't leave here anyway, right? I'll be fine, it's close by."

Hyuga chuckled. "Okay. Then, you take care of yourself, Maki. Do your best."

"Yeah, you too, Hyuga. Make sure you keep winning, and lay off the Coke!"

"Hey, I can promise to keep winning, but I can't promise I'll go off Coke."

Maki laughed. "It'll do you good. Well, see you!"

"See you."

There was a shuffle of footsteps and Tsubasa heard her run off, her footsteps light against the concrete. He allowed them a handful of seconds before peeking around the corner. He saw Hyuga stare absently at the playing field. Tsubasa fought back a grin and began walking towards him.

"Hey, Hyuga!"

The striker jumped about a mile and looked over his shoulder at him. Upon seeing Tsubasa, he relaxed and nodded at him.

"Not calling Anego?" said Hyuga with a little smile.

He was referring to two nights ago, when he had accidentally walked in on Tsubasa talking on the phone with Sanae in the foyer area, while the others were watching a movie in the rec-room. Though Tsubasa had been pleased to have been able to secretly call Sanae while the others were distracted, he made Hyuga (who had failed in his attempt to stop smirking widely) swear not to tell the others.

"You've seen how they are with Matsuyama whenever he calls Yoshiko," Tsubasa had reasoned, wincing.

Hyuga did not often participate in teasing his team mates about their crushes or girlfriends. It was therefore a sign of how much he had mellowed out since their early junior high school days, that even reserved, mature Hyuga would think about using this piece of information for his own benefit, and at Tsubasa's expense.

One example was when they passed each other in the corridor, when Tsubasa was heading towards the laundry room to throw his clothes in the wash.

"Oh, did Anego buy you that shirt?" Hyuga had asked with raised eyebrows as he walked by. Tsubasa twitched and, as his hands were full, attempted to kick him. Hyuga dodged easily, snickering as Tsubasa dropped his clothes everywhere. The two began having a light-hearted brawl in the corridor, and it took half their team mates and few bruises to separate them, laughing and throwing joking verbal insults at each other.

But the prime example would have been during their training the next day. When Hyuga and Tsubasa were struggling for the ball, Hyuga uncharacteristically attempted todistract Tsubasa by hissing, "Tsubasa, telephone! Anego called!"

Recalling that moment when he had balked and lost the soccer ball to Hyuga, who had subsequently managed to score an excellent goal, Tsubasa stopped beside the bench that Hyuga was sitting on and smiled a little, playing along.

"No, Sanae's seeing a movie with some friends tonight," he said brightly. "Some chick-flick."

"Aw, and not a romance movie with you?"

"Well, maybe next time. You should try watching one, too."

"Huh?" said Hyuga distractedly as a gust of wind blew his towel onto the ground, and he stooped to pick it up again. Tsubasa smirked.

"With your friend from Okinawa who was here just now, I mean. Maybe I could slip a mention to Ishizaki. Not that, you know, it'd mean much to him, but he might be able to recommend a romantic comedy or two for your date with... what was her name again? Maki, wasn't it?" said Tsubasa casually. Hyuga twitched violently and craned his neck to glare up at him.

"You _wouldn't_," he growled dangerously. Tsubasa grinned widely.

"Is there something wrong, Hyuga?" he asked innocently.

"If you say a word, I'll kill you," said Hyuga. It was unnerving, really, to discover that the one-track-minded soccer genius, Tsubasa Oozora, could actually be this... _evil._

Said evil genius sat down on the bench beside him. "So, are we even?" he said.

Hyuga allowed himself to glare at him for another moment, before sighing and taking a swig of water from his bottle.

"Yeah," he grumbled, defeated. "We're even.


End file.
